Conventional footwear having transparent and translucent areas that can display an underlying sock have been available for some time, e.g., Jellies®, Melissa Love System®, Adidas Clima Response/Cool® or Nike Air Max Rival®. The first reference to this concept identified was in 1697 when Charles Perrault included glass slippers in his version of the tale of Cinderella. A user could use such footwear with a conventional sock, such as one having a single color, so that the color of the sock would be visible through the footwear. In the art, U.S. Pat. No. 2,887,792 to Staff notes that, at the time of that patent, women's shoes with transparent uppers were popular and they allowed the stockings of the wearer to be visible. Staff discloses a transparent woman's dress shoe that uses a consumer changeable plastic insert to change the appearance of the shoe. U.S. Pat. No. 5,659,929 to Sileo has a transparent sole and upper so its decorated and exchangeable tongue and insole can be viewed. Coordinated shoelaces may also be used. U.S. Pat. No. 6,711,836 to Weiss also presents the concept of an exchangeable device to alter the appearance of footwear in the form of a removable member, an elongated insole.
Additionally, U.S. Pat. Nos. 2,982,033, 3,319,360 and 4,096,650 to Bingham, Nadler, and Seidel, respectively disclose transparent boots that use a liner to influence the appearance of the boot in which the liner is permanently attached during the manufacturing process. A version of the Nike Air Zoom UltraFlight® provides a clear plastic shell that allows a single removable sock-liner provided with the footwear to be displayed therethrough. The Nike Air Force II Espo® provides a sneaker with transparent areas and an associated flat blue sock with a white swoosh, representing the company's logo, to be displayed through the footwear. Cheer Athletic® provides a sneaker with a mesh display area and Severe Socks® with flat colors that allow the user to alter the color of the area on the shoe by displaying the different flat colored socks. Nike® also provides a line of Michael Jordan Sandals that have an associated sock whose color pattern aligns with the color pattern on the sandal. Crocs® provide a sandal with circular and oval cut out/open areas and a line of socks that have a design that emulates the layout of cut out/open areas on the sandal. When the sandals and socks are worn in conjunction a section of the sock may align with a section of the cut out/open areas on the sandal, loosely displaying a portion of the sock's design through the sandal.
Several patents disclose cutout or window sections of footwear, which allow a picture placed inside or on the footwear to be seen. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 4,852,276 to Adamik and U.S. Pat. No. 4,852,276 to Savoca provide a transparent pouch on the outside of the footwear for displaying materials inserted in the pouch, and U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 2004/0025373 to Schuver et al. discloses a window to the interior of the footwear for viewing indicia for sizing purposes.
Several additional patents and patent applications address changeable footwear. U.S. Pat. No. 5,083,385 to Halford provides interchangeable uppers that allow the footwear to be readily transformable. US Patent Applications No. 2004/0172853, No. 2004/0187351 and 2005/0102856 disclose footwear with a rotating tongue that can be turned to provide a second appearance to the footwear. A product utilizing this technology called the Varados® with Tongue Twister®, have transparent mesh stripes that can display the appearance of the elongated tongue, and are currently marketed by K-Swiss®. US Patent Application No. 2005/0016032 discloses a changeable stripe for footwear having a pull tab connected to the stripe that can be shifted in one direction or the other to disclose different surface features of the stripe, in order to vary the coloration or design of the stripe that is visible. A product utilizing this technology called the Wallis, with Stripe Shifter, is currently marketed by K-Swiss®.
None of the above inventions or products provide a footwear system having footwear with at least one transparent, semi-transparent, and/or translucent display area and a system of specifically designed user interchangeable innerliners that allow the user to rapidly, easily, and effectively alter the appearance of their footwear to achieve multiple predetermined combined appearances by simply changing the innerliners.